Canteloupe and Cukes - how long til fruit?

I have Cateloupe and Cucumber plants growing like crazy. They're both healthy and have been flowering, but absolutely NO fruit has appeared. They've been in the box for a couple months, easily. Should I not be seeing fruit by now? Folks at work have in-ground gardens with massive fruits and veggies, and it's supposed to be the other way around! Hep me Hep me!

Have you seen any bees in your garden? If not, you may need to pollinate the female blooms yourself. Good luck.

mapspringer wrote:I have Cateloupe and Cucumber plants growing like crazy. They're both healthy and have been flowering, but absolutely NO fruit has appeared. They've been in the box for a couple months, easily. Should I not be seeing fruit by now? Folks at work have in-ground gardens with massive fruits and veggies, and it's supposed to be the other way around! Hep me Hep me!

The first flowers are *usually* male blossoms that will not make fruit. The female blossoms have an ovary at the base that looks like a tiny fruit - and will become it, if well pollinated. Often the plants will bloom with males for a week or two before the females arrive.

You also need bees - not just an occasional one, but you want your garden patch to be humming. If your cukes and cantaloupe don't get any bee visits, the incipient fruit will wither and drop off. If you get a few visits, but not enough pollen delivered, you'll get deformed cukes and cantaloupe that isn't sweet. So if you have any doubt, hand pollinate. A lot of gardeners are having to do this, due to "pollinator decline." If you are lucky enough to have local beekeepers, as well as neighbors who don't fog their yards, you may still have good bee populations. But many folks don't.

camprn wrote:Have you seen any bees in your garden? If not, you may need to pollinate the female blooms yourself. Good luck.

I just noticed I saw a lot of bees in my garden and also saw some small cukes growing. I did not know that bees were necessay to the the production of cukes. What other veggies require pollination help from bees?

It is possible to have a cucumber plant with no female flowers. One of my cucumbers is 7 feet tall. Plenty of male flowers but not one female flower. I have a bee hive 15 feet from the garden so polinators are not the problem. Just only male flowers. I have about 10 cucumber plants growing up the same trellis and the other plants are bearing many cucumbers. This one plant is just sterile I guess.

I've been wondering the same thing. I have a bucket of cukes (3 plants) that have been blooming for over a month. Got loads of male flowers and only 1 cuke out of the cluster.

Kay

walshevak wrote:I've been wondering the same thing. I have a bucket of cukes (3 plants) that have been blooming for over a month. Got loads of male flowers and only 1 cuke out of the cluster.

Kay

I had that happen last year, no female blooms for a long time. Then there were female blooms and no male blooms. It's weird. I don't know why; perhaps the heat.

floyd1440 wrote:

camprn wrote:Have you seen any bees in your garden? If not, you may need to pollinate the female blooms yourself. Good luck.

I did not know that bees were necessay to the the production of cukes. What other veggies require pollination help from bees?

Yes bees are extremely important for most anything that produces fruit or seeds. And some things that don't require bees for you, do require them for the seed grower - like cabbages, onions, etc. Sweet and Irish potatoes don't need bees. Tomatoes and peppers are self fertile and can be pollinated by the shaking of the wind, but you'll get more fruit and bigger fruit if you get a bumblebee to give it a good buzz (resonant shaking), which releases much more pollen than wind can. Bees are critical on all the cucurbits, except night-blooming gourds, which are pollinated by moths. Peanuts and English peas are among the few crops that self pollinate - usually before the blossom opens.

Pollinator wrote:

walshevak wrote:I've been wondering the same thing. I have a bucket of cukes (3 plants) that have been blooming for over a month. Got loads of male flowers and only 1 cuke out of the cluster.

Kay

I had that happen last year, no female blooms for a long time. Then there were female blooms and no male blooms. It's weird. I don't know why; perhaps the heat.

Found another cuke hiding this morning, but that is still only 2.

Kay

@Pollinator

Thanks for what veggies bees help; I did not know how impoetand they are to every gardener.

Did find 4 cukes on my four plants and they are only 12 inches high but are grapping on to the trelils and hope the heat will help them grow.

I learn something new every time I get on this board.